Linda Huber Interview Published on: 14, Sep 2026

Three of my psychological suspense novels (Stolen Sister, Daria’s Daughter, Death Wish) are set in Glasgow, and all five Lakeside Hotel books by my better self, Melinda Huber, are set here where I live in N.E. Switzerland. I love being able to picture my characters moving around in a place I know intimately!

I think everything I’ve experienced in life helps to form my characters and give readers the important feeling of reality about a character’s thoughts, feelings, actions. in both English teaching and physiotherapy I was privileged to meet large numbers of people over the years, and I’ve pinched tiny bits of a lot of them to go into my books. Someone’s wasp allergy, someone else’s irritating habit of interrupting… It all helps build a rounded picture.

I devoured psychological suspense books in my twenties, and one day I thought – I’m going to write one too. And I did!

I’ve lived in this area – I can see the lake when I’m sitting at my pc – for over half my life, and when I decided to write the Escape to Switzerland series, this was the logical place to set the books. The fictional Lakeside Hotel is right on the banks of a lake bordering Switzerland, Germany and Austria – the characters can travel to three different countries and be back in time for tea…

Feel-good fiction is lighter in that no one is murdered or otherwise seriously traumatised, and the endings tend to be happy as distinct from merely positive, which I aim for in my suspense books. There’s more scope for humour, too.

The biggest challenge was when I discovered that a building I’d earmarked on Google maps for the home of my main character in Stolen Sister was, in real life, right next door to the hospice where my father’s life ended. The book was half-finished at this point, and although it was nearly a year before I went back to it, it was completed and published with the location unchanged.

Just do it. Write. And read in your genre, that’s very important.

Human beings are emotional creatures, and most of us prefer to see the good and the humour in a situation. That doesn’t mean ignoring the bad stuff, it means coming to terms with it in a positive way. At the beginning of the first Lakeside Hotel book, Rico is mourning his mother. It takes him a few books to get there, but he manages to integrate her memory into his life, and he’s a stronger and more realistic character as a result. I hope…

From the Lakeside Hotel books, I hope readers find an awareness of a lovely area and the wish to travel around in it. From the suspense books, that there is always a way through the most difficult situation. In all my books, I hope readers find realistic characters they can identify with.

Next up for Melinda Huber is a brand new feel-good series set in Cornwall and involving dogs. Lots and lots of dogs. That’s coming soon… Meanwhile, Linda Huber is arranging material for another suspense book, but that one’s a bit further down the line.

What I appreciate most about AllAuthor is that I can dip in and out as needed, according to whatever stage I’m at in whatever I’m writing. And the many resources you have there for book promotion. It helps enormously.